The Highland monthly - National Library of Scotland

286 The Highland Monthh .
Four caused you hurt
—
Man and wife,
Young man and maiden.
Who is to turn that ?
The three Persons of the most Holy Trinity,
The Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.
I send my prayer to the Virgin Mary and to St Bridget.
That if your hurt was caused by man,
Through ill-will,
Or the evil eye.
Or a wicked heart,
That you [A. B.] may be whole.
While I entwine this about you.
In 7iomme Patris, &c.
The whole of the foregoing Incantation is recited three
times, and, during the recital, the SnaitJilean, or tri-coloured
triple thread, is entwined about the beast's tail (am bun an
earbuill) with triple knots. If the beast is to recover, the
person applying the SnaitJilean feels himself or herself
becoming ill. If the first recital does not prove efficacious,
the rite may be performed two or three times.
Another Eolas, which appears to be an abbreviation of
the Snaithlean, is
EOLAS FOIREIGNIDH.
It may be used for man or beast, with or without the
SnaitJile, in all sorts of illnesses of a sudden nature, and is
much in request. It is as follows :
Ceathrar a laidheas an suil.
Fear a's bean,
Gille agus nighean,
Triuir ga shobhadh(?) sin,
An t-Athair, am Mac, 's an Spiorad Naomh.
From the Evil Eye and the SnaitJilean one naturally
turns to
THE SIAN', OR SEUN.
Macalpine defines Seiin as "an amulet to render a
warrior invulnernable." The word is also used in an
ecclesiastical sense as meaning Dlessed, or sacred. We